The Deeper South

Gabe’s “Brightgrave” campaign continues apace, revelations have been… revealed, and he literally had a point where something big happened and the Title came up. This is some pretty meta shit: it required describing, as an object inside the shared hallucination of the game world, a word materializing and then hanging in the air.

I think “cheeky” is the term. But I absorb the after-action reports with rapt attention; he’s killing it in there.

I lost myself quite easily in The Division 2 last night, caught in a kind of loop where I explored, earned resources, claimed territory, and then supported the claimed territory with resources. Gabriel tried to get into the Division, both of them, and even though he gets it and I think respects the games themselves as “mechanical devices whose purpose is the generation of amusement” it’s not something he can invest himself in long term and it doesn’t have much to do with whether or not it’s “fun” or “good.”

People use the term “Power Fantasy” without much care for its granularity, which is to say, they misuse it. What manifests such a fantasy for Gabriel isn’t the same as it is for me. He already feels capable, so he doesn’t need the device to reinforce that. He wants to look cool, which can be correlated with Capability but isn’t synonymous. Success for me in a game, “power” to deploy the crudest possible nomenclature, is a sense that I am capable. Maybe I’m saying too much here. For me, the functional garb, buckles, clips, and above all pragmatism of Division gear - which leans into techwear fetishism and high-utility, purposeful design as you get into Gear Sets - that works for me. I love my Warlock, don’t get me wrong - love, rapidly accelerating toward like-like - but that Fallen-themed Bond I’m wearing would pierce my heart if I tripped. I would die several times over. My Ghost would have to take a break. There isn’t a carabiner to be seen.

In The Division, I look like I’m ready for some real shit or I just got done with some real shit. That works for me.

We have three new shirts coming out today, all sharing a kind of Acquisitions Incorporated: “C” Theme, if you will, appropriate because this is Wednesday which is the day Acquisitions Incorporated: The “C” Team runs. Specifically, it runs at 4pm PDT on Twitch and Amy‘s back so yay.